Alexandra Chandler

Elections, natsec, tech. Work @protctdemocracy. Staff lead @ElectionTask. Also @GLADlaw Board & @TrumanProject DefCon. 13 yrs IC analysis. Trans. Mom. My views.

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

Whatever this Administration thinks, trans people serve our country, and we will still be serving after you are gone.

This is my official ONI photo from 2012. I was a division chief leading analysts against WMD and arms proliferation.

We are strong, and we will prevail.

[PBS News @NewsHour]

If you go to bed on election night and don't know who won a midterm congressional race, that's normal. And if you wake up the next morning and find that a candidate who was behind hours earlier has since pulled ahead, that's normal, too. (via @PolitiFact) https://t.co/qXoZPnofJf

[Protect Democracy @protctdemocracy]

BREAKING WIN: In our case SEIU v. DOJ, a federal court has issued a temporary restraining order barring DOJ and DHS from intimidating, coercing, or threatening election workers.

Read the order: https://t.co/HSScubluon

[Stephen Richer @stephen_richer]

11 reasons why you can have confidence in the upcoming American elections. What would you add?

1) Paper ballots

According to Verified Voting, 98% of Americans vote using a paper ballot. Paper ballots can’t be hacked or otherwise digitally manipulated. And they produce an auditable record.

Some voters hand-mark a paper ballot (Arizona). Others use a touchscreen that then prints a ballot receipt (Georgia). Either way, the voter has a paper record, against which he can confirm his selections, and the ballots can be audited after machine tabulation.

*Louisiana is the only state that doesn’t broadly use paper ballots.

2) Post-election audits

In 2008, fewer than half the states required post-election tabulation audits. Now all 50-states have laws for post-election audits.

Post-election hand-count audits dispel allegations of tabulation manipulation or error. If tabulators “flipped votes” from one candidate to another, or if tabulators failed to read votes for one candidate, it’s revealed in a professional post-election audit.

3) Federalized elections

People often imagine rigging an election like the scene in Tom Cruise’s first Mission Impossible movie, in which Cruise is suspended from the ceiling while he hacks into a central computer to obtain the “NOC list.”

But there is no central computer. There is no national voter registration database. There is no central results server. There is no single tabulation software.

There are over 9,000 voting jurisdictions in the United States. They are subject to 50 different sets of state law. Different counties have different election contests, different ballot formatting, different ways of confirming identity, and different tabulation software.

These local jurisdictions (often counties) run the election. Not the state. Not the federal government.

4) Bipartisan workers

None of the 9,000+ election jurisdictions is run entirely by Republicans or entirely by Democrats. Bipartisanship is built into every jurisdiction and is a productive tension. For example, in Arizona, mail ballots must be removed from their envelopes by two workers of different political affiliation. And if the top official at a voting location is a Republican, the second-in-command can’t be a Republican.

The best part is: you can join (and maybe get paid!). Election offices hire lots of temporary workers.

5) Watchful eyes

Elections are more transparent than ever. For example, in Maricopa County, you can livestream all critical stages of the ballot tabulation process. In Los Angeles County, there’s an observation deck at the central counting facility.

State law usually allows for political party observers at all voting locations and central counting facilities. Nonpartisan observers are often allowed as well. In recent years, both major political parties have aggressively recruited election observers.

6) Disaggregated voting behavior

A lot of the disaster scenarios envisioned by Democrats – for example, ICE at the polls – contemplate American elections as they existed 30 years ago when almost everyone voted on Election Day.

That’s no longer the case.

In November 2024, only 37.4% of Americans voted in person on Election Day. 35.2% voted early in person. 30.3% voted by mail ballot.

Of those who vote in person on Election Day, that’s done across approximately 95,000 different voting locations.

In many counties, you can vote at any voting location within the county. If there’s a disruption at one voting location, you can drive a bit further to another voting location.

7) We don’t just turn the machines on and hope for the best

Yes, we have post-election hand-count audits that reveal errors. But tests happen before the election as well. There are state certifications and federal certifications. Election officials test every piece of equipment before putting it in the field.

Does that mean it always works perfectly? No.

But there is always a backup plan.

8) The primaries went well

Almost nobody cried foul during the primaries. They went very, very smoothly across the United States. The same people are running the general election, and they’re using the same equipment.

9) You have to register to vote

49 states require voters to register before voting (North Dakota doesn’t). This means there’s a record of who can vote. It’s a public record.

There’s also a record of who does vote. It’s also a public record.

You can compare the registration file with the voted file. If more people vote than are registered, you’ve got a problem.

10) Data nerds

Data nerds use these voter files to map voting behavior. If Steve Kornacki of NBC News saw a massive influx of Republican votes in, say, Oakland, California, he’d probably ask some questions, and people would look into it. Ditto if Kornacki saw a big blue density coming out of Provo, Utah.

This is one of the reasons why it’s hard to “inject ballots into the system.”

11) Lawyers and lawsuits

There are lots and lots of lawyers involved in American elections. Lawyers for the political parties. Lawyers for the candidates. Lawyers for voting rights groups. Lawyers for election integrity groups.

This is a good thing (usually).

If those lawyers see something that they think is material fraud or error, they can file a lawsuit and have it adjudicated in state or federal courts.

………………………………..

There’s been a lot of noise about why you can’t trust American elections.

Confidence among both Democrats and Republicans has gone down significantly since the immediate aftermath of the November 2024 election.

But the mechanics of American elections are the same now as they were in 2024.

And they were sound then. They’re sound now.

Tell me what elements I left off that should be on this list!

Happy voting!

Stephen

[ian bremmer @ianbremmer]

us-canada relations and us-europe relations have been permanently damaged. much can still be done to limit the scope of that damage, but it’s impossible to return to the trust and alignment of the previous alliances.

china is the principal beneficiary.

[Michael McFaul @McFaul]

So Trump has picked a fight with the democratically-elected prime minister of Canada but calls the communist dictator of North Korea his friend.

Americans, Trumps foreign policy makes no sense! It’s completely irrational.

Do you even know why we are fighting with Canada?

Do you know what we get out of befriending the communist regime in North Korea?

I don’t know the answer to either of these questions.

[Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum]

As I write this, North Korean missiles have just hit Kyiv

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

@JessicaBRiedl And tracks my own surprised experience when I transitioned in 2006 as an analyst at the Office of Naval Intelligence. The Republican appointees & officials that were my policy customers were supportive & kind. I’m grateful most of that crop haven’t given in to anti trans fever.

[Anne Applebaum @anneapplebaum]

What a transcript

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

Thanks @BoKnowsNews for the data-filled reporting on Trump’s false claims about 2020, which are key to his 2026 election plan. As I told Bo: “He’s not looking back; this is about the midterms.” To interfere and deny the results when his allies still lose.
https://t.co/KH1wYMOI9W

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

Good for him, and us all.

[The Associated Press @AP]

BREAKING: Jerome Powell says he plans to remain on the board of the Federal Reserve after his term as chair ends next month “for an undetermined period of time.” https://t.co/A1dGS51qwC

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

200 billion for Trump’s war that “we’ve already won”, going after the nuclear program we already obliterated.

And at budget time we had no money for the millions losing healthcare, or hundreds of thousands dead because USAID was too expensive.

No. This is an abomination.

[The Associated Press @AP]

BREAKING: The Pentagon seeks $200 billion in additional funds for the Iran war, AP source says. https://t.co/1E0lUo9FV4

[Aaron Reichlin-Melnick @ReichlinMelnick]

If Russia and China conspired to destroy the U.S. military with a Manchurian candidate I don't think they could have picked a better choice than Hegseth.

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Lies are loyalty tests in an autocracy.

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

Weren’t we all told it was liberals, progressives, and Democrats that didnt believe in the 2nd Amendment, were going to bring in a Big Government papers-please police state and trample on liberty?

Oops.

Bovino argues 2nd Amendment didn’t apply to Pretti https://t.co/zXbcrh8U84

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

And I don’t know about any of you, but I don’t know anyone who believes anything has gotten more affordable. Turns out tariffs, terrorizing American cities, and ballroom obsessions don’t really help make anything cheaper. Who knew?

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

Thoughts—

1) video of Trump’s press conference is hard to find on X. Is Elon algorithmically suppressing it? The slurring and nonsense was so bad despite the propaganda press.

2) 37% approval, so time for more Greenland threats & trans bashing

3) Still no Epstein files

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

<—- This American understands. Greenland for Greenlanders, no more threats to them or our Danish allies. 🇬🇱 🇩🇰

And Putin laughs as Trump drags us into his “special military operation” against Greenland, echoing his Ukraine playbook— while we abandon Ukraine to Russia.

[Andrew Desiderio @AndrewDesiderio]

Tillis says he’ll oppose all Fed nominees until the Powell legal matter is “fully resolved.”

This will almost certainly prevent the Banking Committee from confirming Fed nominees.

[Alexandra Chandler @a_chandler]

The latest success in our America Last and America Alone foreign policy.

https://t.co/LfEoIhAudU

[Tim Miller @Timodc]

Summary execution of an American citizen.